Strikers

There have been two distinct species of striker in the modern game, and British football at least has been loathe to look for alternatives. The first is the 'Big No. 9', tall, strong, good with his head and happy to take 90 minutes of hard knocks. The second type, evolved from the inside-forward of old, is lighter, quicker, usually more skilful and looking to profit from the knock-down or touch-off from his partner. This combination has been evident at most successful clubs and some classic examples from the past are Chivers and Gilzean at Spurs, and Jones and Clarke at Leeds. Strangely, the English national team has had precious little success using this system, and of late have relied up front on Lineker and Beardsley, reluctant to repeat the mistake made with Mark Hateley. At Palace, easily their most successful attacking partnership - that of Mark Bright and Ian Wright - is a perfect example of the system at its best, but there have been a few others to consider over the years, and I shall start by looking at the 'target men', of which there haven't been too many.

Palace's centre-forward in Bert Head's promotion side of 1969 was Bobby Woodruff, a consistent scorer with good timing in the air and a notable long throw, but too gentle a soul to make his mark after helping the team into Division One. After Woodruff had left, only having played a few games in the First Division, there was a gap until Alan Birchenall arrived the following season, as Palace's first £100,000 signing. Birchenall never looked as good as he was supposed to be, and although he always worked hard he spent most of the time with his back to the goal, knocking the ball down to nobody in particular, and was rarely in positions to score himself. Maybe he would have had more luck in a better side, but Chelsea didn't seem to miss him too much, although he epitomised their lingering 'swinging sixties' image, claiming that he used to sing with Joe Cocker in Sheffield.

Following Birchenall were a succession of tiny forwards including Willie Wallace and Derek Possee, although the long, thin Ross Jenkins earned the distinction of probably being Palace's tallest player ever after progressing from the reserves to the first team for a few games. Perhaps Palace gave up on him too hastily, feeling that he was far too easy to knock off the ball, because when he re-emerged a few years later as the lynchpin of Watford's spectacularly successful airborne attack force, he had changed into a strong, aggressive and effective player.

Another graduate from the youth team, Dave Swindlehurst, was given an early chance by Malcolm Allison, and after a slow start improved steadily to become Palace's highest scorer in recent years, with a total of 81 goals. Swindlehurst's big asset was his all-round physical strength, and it was this rather than any agility that won him a lot of balls in the air, a good proportion of his goals coming from powerful headers, although he loved to try a spectacular volley from time to time.

Dave Swindlehurst

He once scored eight goals in a spell of nine games in 1975, and although he only scored one hat-trick - in the last game of 1977-78 - he was the only player who could guarantee a steady stream of goals throughout the season. He particularly benefitted from the service given by Peter Taylor on the wing, and his best season was when Palace reached the F.A.Cup semi-final in 1976, Swindlehurst scoring the winning goal in perhaps the greatest victory of that run, at Leeds United. He invariably scored in the key games, including one of the four against Wrexham that hauled Palace out of the Third Division in 1977, and a goal in each of the last three games of 1978-79, victories that won Palace the Second Division Championship. His partnership with Ian Walsh that year had been quite productive, but once in the First Division Venables decided to pair Swindlehurst with Mike Flanagan, which never really came off at all. Having spent so much money on Flanagan, Venables could hardly drop him, so it was Swindlehurst who paid the price, eventually being sold to Derby County. How Palace could have done with him in the years to come, and it wasn't until we he had been made to suffer such poor substitutes as Tommy Langley, Ian Edwards and Chris Jones that we really appreciated Swindlehurst's qualities, and yearned to have him back.

I suppose some people would regard Clive Allen as a classic English centre-forward, and there have certainly been enough clubs willing to employ him as such over the years, but quite frankly all we saw during his time at Palace were glimpses of hints of a suggestion of his 'potential', his greatness remaining well hidden.

Andy McCulloch was another of Alan Mullery's unsuccessful strikers, and at least his successor - Trevor Aylott - almost reached double figures in 1984-85, his nine goals comparing favourably to the seven collected by the top scorer the year before, Tony Evans. After Aylott's drawn out demise, both Andy Gray and Phil Barber had a go in the No. 9 shirt, but Steve Coppell finally struck gold when he bought Mark Bright from Leicester City, for only £75,000. Bright had been in the shadow of Gary Lineker and Alan Smith at Leicester, and hadn't done himself justice when he finally got his chance in the first team, But Coppell saw something in him that others had missed, a keen intelligence in front of goal that more than made up for any deficiencies of speed or sharpness. Bright scored in his first game for Palace, a 3-3 draw with Ipswich, and spent the rest of the 1986-87 season fine tuning his partnership with Ian Wright, which produced spectacular results the following year when his 24 league goals made him Palace's highest scorer in a single season since the days of Johnny Byrne. He is a target man in the truest sense, with long clearances from goal invariably aimed towards his handsome head, and he has rarely been bested over the course of a game by any central defender. The fact that he demands such close attention in turn creates more space for his colleagues, but as well as setting up a good number of chances with little flicks of the head, and by holding the ball up to lay it off into somebody's stride, he has proved beyond doubt a precious instinct for scoring.

Perhaps the weakest part of his game is when it comes to long-range shots, but put the ball across the face of goal and Bright will be there to force it home with some part of his body, his face animated with a delight that signifies him as someone who loves the game as much as the fans themselves. In contrast to a lot of big forwards, who often tend to have a violent edge to their game, Bright is a gentleman even when he goes in hard, and it was completely uncharacteristic for him to stamp on a Sheffield Wednesday defender in 1989-90, for which he was deservedly sent off. Critics of Bright insist that he has only done so well thanks to being paired with Ian Wright, but I would say that the benefit has been entirely mutual, and that although Bright certainly isn't as fast or as skilful as his partner, his other qualities make him one of the very best of his type in the English game at the moment. Without doubt, Mark Bright's most memorable and spectacular goal was his unstoppable volley against Liverpool in the F.A.Cup semi-final, but he has won many a lesser game with more mundane goals, and I look forward to his second season in Division One with great anticipation.

While there are few of the 'Big No. 9's' to choose from - and we do not yet know enough about Garry 'Rambo" Thompson to make a judgement - the other type of forward, the scavenger, has been better represented at Palace, from the sideburned Cliff Jackson all the way up to Ian Wright. Cliff Jackson was originally a winger, and when he converted to centre-forward it was his speed on the ground above all else that made him dangerous, happy to let Woodruff get on with the job of challenging for the ball in the air. His best season was the promotion year of 1969, and he it was who scored the vital equaliser against Fulham after Palace had been 2-0 down, which he celebrated with his renowned 'gladiator' salute. He had a less happy time in the First Division, largely due to the fact that his partner Gerry Queen was too similar a type of player, and neither of them had the muscle to cause problems to hefty First Division defences.

Gerry Queen was signed from Kilmarnock by Bert Head, who said of him; "When I weigh up a player I look for just 8 attributes...Gerry has 7, which shows how highly I rate him." He only averaged a goal every four games for Palace, and was unfortunate that he never had a good target man to feed off, ending his Palace days scampering around looking for scraps up front with Willie Wallace. Queen had the distinction of scoring in Palace's first ever game in the First Division, against Manchester United, and it was his goal that beat Liverpool in 1971, Palace's only league victory over that team to date. The goal which I always remember, though, was in the Boxing Day game against Chelsea in 1970, when Palace were hammered 5-1, but Queen looped a long-range, wind-assisted googly past Peter 'The Cat' Bonetti from an implausible distance, to briefly give Palace the lead.

Willie Wallace was one of Bert Head's least successful Scottish buys, and both Derek Possee and Alan Whittle had far bigger reputations than were warranted before they came to Palace. Whittle at least scored one terrific goal on his debut against Manchester United, and won a few penalties, but Possee simply wasn't the same player who had been so good at Millwall, and the two of them together up front were a dead loss, not just because they were so short.

After Swindlehurst had established himself in the team, he had a variety of striking partners, the most of effective of whom were the heroic Jeff Bourne and the unlucky Mike Elwiss, and Dave Kemp had his moments, but Swindlehurst was undoubtedly at his best when playing alongside Ian Walsh. Walsh was from the vintage crop of youth team players that served Venables so well at the end of the 1970s, and he was a perfect foil to the big man, although never a great goalscorer. He was a very busy player, always looking for the ball in deep and wide positions, and for a small man he was pretty good in the air, notably when scoring the first goal against Burnley in the 1979 promotion clincher. Palace's success helped him to win a place in the Welsh national team, but Venables regrettably preferred to play his expensive signing Mike Flanagan in his place, and Walsh's appearances from then on were only intermittent, although he came in and out of the side for a couple of years before Steve Kember released him to Swansea.

Flanagan himself was a ponderous player who I for one never took to, and Tony Sealey was no better or worse, and it wasn't until Kevin Mabbutt signed from Bristol City in 1981 that Palace at last had a good forward, although he had to try his best with scant assistance from either Tommy Langley or Chris Jones. It is a great shame when you see a good player unable to exploit his talent because of injury, but Mabbutt was clearly fated never to make it to the top of his profession, Palace finally losing patience with him in 1984 after several false dawns.

When Steve Coppell took over in 1984, he experimented with several partners for Trevor Aylott - Andy Gray and Phil Barber both having some success - but once the green but talented Ian Wrighthad found his feet there was no looking back. In his first season Wright scored some important goals after coming on as substitute, but his second year was a bit of a disappointment, with only nine goals from 42 starts, the usual kind of percentage for a Palace forward until then. After Mark Bright had been installed, though, Wright suddenly found a new confidence and began to play with abandon, and it was soon evident that here was one of the most naturally skilful players unearthed for many years, not just at Palace, but in the English game. His haul of goals from then on tells part of the story, and there is no more delightful sight than Ian Wright pouncing on to a loose ball and lashing it into the net, but there is so much more to his game than that. He can devastate defences with a wicked burst of speed, but his most enjoyable trick is when he brings down a high ball with his back to the goal, and with one neat flick controls it, turns past the centre back and leaves him sprawling in his wake as he bears down on the goalkeeper.

Ian Wright

As well as being brilliant with the ball at his feet, Wright is a deadly header of the ball - although shorter than sometimes claimed - and as mild mannered a personality as you could wish to meet. In short, I think he's wonderful. His first season in Division One was a frustrating one, with his leg being broken on two separate occasions, but I have no doubt that he has the ability, given a bit of luck, to prove himself in the near future as a world-class player, England's answer to Toto Schillaci. Such a prospect should thrill anyone who saw him come on as substitute and score two spectacular goals in the F.A.Cup final, which put Palace to within seven minutes of winning the Cup. His first goal that day was something extra special, and deserves to be remembered as one of the great Cup Final goals of all time.